Shuhei Yoshida, the former director of SIE Worldwide Studios reveals that FromSoftware refused to develop a sequel to Demons Souls due to Sony’s poor management.
FromSoftware Rejected Demons Souls 2 Due to Sony’s Mismanagement
As the saying goes, Shuhei Yoshida is “spilling the tea” through a series of statements, with the highlight being his demotion at Sony under former PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan.
The ex-president of SIE Worldwide Studios has also revealed that The Last of Us Online “was very promising” and has predicted that the PS6 will launch in 2028.
Now, Yoshida has turned his attention to FromSoftware, uncovering a previously unknown fact related to the studio’s tense relationship with Sony.
In the Sacred Symbols podcast, Shuhei Yoshida stated that FromSoftware refused to release a sequel to Demon’s Souls after receiving poor treatment from Sony regarding the PS3 game.
“They were already planning a continuation, but they were so disappointed with Sony that they turned down our offer,” he explained. “Even though we wanted to work with them again, they refused.”
Sony didn’t believe in Demon’s Souls and only published it in Japan, leaving other companies to handle its release in the rest of the world. They simply thought it wouldn’t interest Western audiences.
Why FromSoftware Didn’t Want Sony to Handle Dark Souls
However, Yoshida himself wasn’t one of the game’s biggest supporters. In a 2012 interview with Game Informer, he admitted that he didn’t connect with the game at first.
“I had played for almost two hours and was still at the beginning,” he said at the time. “I thought it was crap, an incredibly bad game, so I put it aside.”
“Fortunately, Atlus took care of publishing it in the U.S. and Namco in Europe,” Yoshida added. “It was a huge success in those territories, and we failed to see the value of the product we had.”
After this snub, FromSoftware partnered with Bandai Namco to create the Dark Souls franchise, which, with three titles, sparked the rise of the soulslike genre. Later, this same partnership led to other major successes for the studio, including Ax and Elden Ring.
It’s worth noting that, in between, FromSoftware and Sony buried the hatchet in 2015 to develop Bloodbornea PlayStation exclusive that Yoshida calls “one of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s best games.”
In any case, those conflicts seem to be a thing of the past—especially since Sony is now the majority shareholder of Kadokawa, FromSoftware’s parent company, whose executives were highly interested in the deal.
It’s possible we’ll see new PlayStation exclusives from the studio in the future. For now, FromSoftware’s plans are focused on the release of ELDEN RING: Nightfreg and other ongoing projects.
Be sure to check out other news Elden Ring Nightreign DLC Leaked by Accidental Reveal and also Elden Ring Nightreign Reveals Its Release Date And don’t forget to bookmark Demons Souls Wiki as you most assuredly will need it!
